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Hello everyone. My name is 00Vampire and some of you may know me from my previous game, Pokémon Asphar - a game which eventually became too complicated for me to continue. It's only been 9 months since that happened, yet I feel I'm ready to try again.
At first glance, Pokémon Circle may appear to be the same game as Asphar - and it effectively is. All I've really done is renamed everything, remade the graphics and changed all the systems around a little bit, while removing some of the more-complicated, less-integral features. And other small things

* * * * *

Storyline-------------

Here's a general summary:
It all started on a stormy day six years ago...
Alex didn't like travelling. He hated travelling by boat even more. And he definately hated being away from his family. He missed his wife and ten-year-old son terribly, but was comforted by the promise of seeing them in just a few weeks time.
Unfortunately, Alex never arrived home that winter.

Present day...
It is the day our young hero turns 16. As he is now of age, he decides to leave home and travel the Atlya region with his Pokémon.
However, just before he leaves, our hero recieves a letter. A letter from his father, Alex.

Our hero's world is turned upside-down as he sets out to save his dad - but are the clues leading him towards his father's mysterious past, an evil organisation aiming to destroy the world... or something even more sinister?

And here I'm going to constantly update a detailed account of the Prologue, which in the game only skims through some of the most important events in Alex's life.

Spoiler:

22 Years Ago
Today was a good day. No, today was a fanastic day. Today would be the best day ever - or at least for Alex. You see, Alex would be starting his Pokemon Adventure, something he had looked forward to ever since he understood what it was.
Alex was fifteen, which meant he was starting his journey a few years later than some. But he didn't mind. He felt it gave him an advantage - being more mature and having saved up a bit of money from doing odd-jobs around town. And while he had never had his own Pokemon before, he had spent many years growing, working and playing with his parent's Pokemon.
Today was made even more special by the fact that he had been chosen my Professor Oak to recieve a 'Starter' Pokemon. These rare Pokemon were only given to a select few beginner trainers - those Professor Oak felt had lots of potential.
Alex knew which one he wanted. He had known even before he had gotten the message from the Professor. Charmander. The best fire Pokemon in the world - in his opinion anyway. Maybe he was a little biased though. He did afterall grow up in the shadow of his mother's Charizard. He had flown all the way to Pewter City and back, holding onto it's warm, sorf body. He had watched in awe as it gracefully demolished it's opposition in the rare few battles he had seen. He even had distant recollections of a playing with a Charmeleon when he was a toddler.
But now was not the time for delving into memories. It was time for Alex to acquire his very own Pokemon, and set out on his Pokemon Adventure...

* * * * *

Features-------------

Spoiler:

No Levels / No Visible Exp / Danger Bar / Aura Scan

There are no visible levels and no visible Exp in Circle. However, the Pokédex has a function to scan the surrounding area (at the push of a button) and gauge roughly how strong any wild Pokémon/Trainers are. This is shown by faint glows called Auras.

Move Improve / Move Selection

The more any technique is used, the better the Pokémon becomes at performing it, and the stronger that move becomes (Up to a specified maximum of course).Also, each Pokémon can learn many different moves which they don't have to forget. At any point outside of battle, a player can access a Pokémon's Skills Screen and choose out of all that Pokémon's learnt techniques, which 4 he wants to set for battle. This allows for lots of strategic customisation on the player's part.

Fatigue

Moves no longer have PP, instead the stronger the move, the more fatigued your Pokémon gets. When the fatigue Bar reaches full, your Pokémon has to rest for a turn or two.

Healing / Injuries & Infections

Healing is no longer instantaneous, and most of the time requires you to leave your Pokémon at a Center for a while. Although normal HP recovery may not take very long, Pokémon can contract injuries and infections which could put them out of action for some time. For instance, a Pidgey with a broken wing may take 5x as long to heal as a Pikachu with a cold.

Training

Across the region of Atlya, there are 8 different Dojos where you can leave a number of your Pokémon to train. You can set a Pokémon to train up any of it's stats or moves. It takes time and money, but is a great way of making your Pokémon stronger. Think of it like a more specific, advanced Daycare.

Gym Battles

In Atlya, while Gym Leaders may prefer certain types, they aren't obliged to use only Pokémon of said type. Instead, most Gyms have different restrictions on the battles to make them more challenging. For example, one of the restrictions in Merrilea Gym is that you can't use more than one Pokémon of the same type.

Rejection / Item Rule

You now have the option to refuse most Trainer Battles. Also, during official matches, no items are allowed to be used.

Tournament / 12 Gyms / Become a Gym Leader

There is no Elite Four in Atlya, instead the Pokémon League is an annual tournament. Also, despite there being 12 Gyms, collecting only 8 of them will still allow yourself to be entered into the Qualifying Rounds. Those strong enough to earn all 12 automatically qualify for the next round. Through a storyline event you can temporarily look after someone's Gym, and eventually own your own by the end of the game.

No HMs / Surfing / Flying

Just like the point says - No HMs. Because of this, Surf and Fly are not counted as techniques and can be used at any time in the overworld, just as long as the Pokémon is strong enough to support you. And like many other things in Circle, flying is also not instantaneous, and Pokémon may need time to rest after travelling long distances.

Free-Roam / Time Factor

Go to any town, in any order. Battle any Gym Leader, in any order. You can even fly to Towns/Cities you haven't yet visited. And since you can go anywhere at anytime, Trainers get progressively stronger over time, instead of over distance. Each trainer has his/her own 'Growth Rate'. Gym Leaders are included, but start off a lot stronger. (May take quite a while in the game before you're ready to take on any Gyms).

Evolution / Attacks / Money

There are many different ways to evolve your Pokémon, however most are a lot harder than just increasing their stats. In the same spirit, there are also various ways to learn new techniques, and likewise harder than just 'levelling up' (If such a thing existed in this game). And to bring even more variety, theres loads of things you can do with any money you save up; you can buy clothes, accessories, properties, Pokémon, and even Apps for your Laptop (See 'Laptop' section).

Full Mouse Support

Simply put, you can use the mouse.

* * * * *

Laptop-------------

Spoiler:

The Laptop is Pokémon Circle's Pokégear/Pokénav/etc. With built-in wireless internet, and a long battery life, it can be used for many different things. Each section of the Laptop is split into it's own application, which can be bought for in-game money via the App Store.

App Store

This is where you can spend your hard earned money to download different useful applications for your Laptop.

Pokémon Trade Market

Effectively Ebay for Pokémon, this application lets you buy and sell Pokémon with people throughout the region.

Pokémon Tracker

Let's you easily keep track of Pokémon you've left at Centers and Dojos around Atlya

PokéTunes

Allows you to listen to different types of music at your leisure.

Atlya News Network

Lets you easily keep track of Pokémon you've left at Centers and Dojos around Atlya.

Oak's Sightings

Professor Oak keeps you updated on locations of rare Pokémon.

Trainer Update

Keeps you informed of all the latest info on the Pokémon League, the Gym Leaders, and up-and-coming trainers.

Property Ladder

An application which lets you quickly and easily buy/sell and manage your properties.

Email

Stay in touch with all your friends and family.

* * * * *

Screenshots-------------

Spoiler:

Battle System

[ Please ignore the fact that Bulbasaur was able to be poisoned. That has since been fixed. ]

How To Play: Crack the eggs open before they disappear, by holding the mouse down on them with the correct cursor selected. For instance, to hatch a Green (Grass) Egg, use the Fire Cursor - which you'd use by clicking on the picture of Growlithe. Also, Thunder beats the Blue Eggs, Raindrop beats the Red Eggs and Bone beats the Yellow Eggs.

Let me know what you score.

F.A.Q

How many Pokemon are there going to be in the game?See the Pokepolls above.

How will you handle evolution of Pokemon that usually require trading, and other Pokemon in general?They'll evolve through different means, depending on the Pokemon itself. Every Pokemon in the game will have a lot of hidden values attached to them that all come to together to determine whether it's ready to evolve or not. Some of these values are linked to things like the Pokemon's stats, it's mood, it's bond with the trainer, it's personality, or whether it even wants to evolve. Other values are linked to such things like how many battles it has taken part in, how old it is, how many times has it been injured/sick, how much it has trained at a dojo, etc etc etc. Depending on the species of Pokemon, more values will be more important than others.

Please feel free to ask any questions about the game in this thread - not only do I enjoy answering them but I also find them useful in helping me think about different aspects of the game I may not have thought about yet. If they're good questions I'll stick them here.

Credit

NikNaks for creating the beautiful map of the region for me back when this was still Pokémon Asphar.

DForte for his help on constructing the move lists.

I don't think there's much else to say at the moment. Thank you for taking the time to read this (although if you're anything like me, then you probably looked at the screenshots and skipped through the rest ).
Until next time. Bye.

Well hello there, I remember your old game and just wow, you've gone and improved a lot since you were last seen making a game. The laptop idea is just great and seems to have been executed excellently with a nice design to your battle system. I'm surprised you're making work like this on RPG Maker 2003 and I must say keep up your brilliant work. The story seems a bit brief but I can see you are hiding a little cliché story in between the lines. But yes, visually you have done an brilliant job so far on your game. Good luck and prosper through game dev.

really like how you can go to any gym at anytime and that trainers get progressively stronger over time instead of location (I assume the same goes for wild pokemon). I also like how you're able to use the pokedex to see what levels the pokemon/trainers are in that area. when ash first met paul in sinnoh, paul used the pokedex to see what attacks starly was able to use, is that implemented in your pokedex as well?

also, did you release a demo for pokemon asphar? if you did, i would love to play it

Wild Pokémon will grow, but at a much, much slower rate than trained Pokémon, and it's so gradual you wouldn't really notice.

However, there are all different strengths of Pokémon all over the region at all times...
If I had to equate it to an official Pokémon game for instance, then it'd sorta be the equivalent of getting your first Pokémon, walking out of Pallet Town and potentially either meeting a level 3 Pidgey, or a level 44 Pidgeot.
That's where the Aura Function of the Pokédex becomes invaluable to the player. I'll upload some screenshots of it in action either tonight or ssometime tomorrow.

Quote originally posted by DForte:

paul used the pokedex to see what attacks starly was able to use, is that implemented in your pokedex as well?

Alas, no. Like in the games, you can only view moves of Pokémon you have already caught. So if you wanted to check (or swap out different) skills, then that would be accessed through the 'Pokémon' section of the menu.

Quote originally posted by DForte:

did you release a demo for pokemon asphar? if you did, i would love to play it

Unfortunately, no. Asphar didn't quite get that far - the main problem being that I never completed the battle system. However, I've already done the framework for the battle system this time, and all it needs doing now is just a lot of copying and pasting for different Pokémon, Skills, and stuff.

Thanks for the questions. I like questions. I'm a question junkie

-------

In regards to the story, with what I've done so far, I have found it rather difficult to progress the story naturally without the main character speaking.

I've added a poll, because I'm interested in hearing other opinions...

Would you prefer the main character to remain silent, like in the official games - or would you prefer for him to have a predefined personality and have dialogue?

Now I was going to post some screenshots of the Pokédex's Aura Scan in action today, however... I got sidetracked (something that unfortunately happens too often).

So instead, here's some screenshots of one of the Game Corner's Pokémon Games:

The idea is to basically smash open each egg with super-effective hits from the Pokémon on the right. You do this by clicking on the Pokémon's attack you want to use, then repeatedly click on the egg until it cracks open, releasing the Pokémon inside. If the egg reaches the bottom of the screen, you lose a life.

Obviously it doesn't really make much real-life sense... but it's just supposed to be a bit of fun.

The Game Corner can be found in Raybourne Resort (check map up top) which is pretty much like a holiday destination in the region. There'll be quite a few mini-games, where getting really high-scores can bag you some rare Pokémon - though be prepared to spend some money trying.

This seems like quite an interesting project and I'm looking forward to seeing more from it.
However, it'd be a lot better if you explained more in your storyline, or expanded it with lots more detail. It seems a bit too plain.
The battle graphics look nice, and the features seem interesting, but I do agree with coolmansam123. It'd be great if you posted some overworld screenshots.

That's kind of why I was asking. There are some people who will sit in a route and just level up until they are 10 or 15 levels higher than their previous level. For those that like to do that, you could make a case for progressing levels by the number of badges you've obtained.

At the same time, some people may want to do a quick run through, so you can make a case for progressing with time.

I personally would like both to be implemented (if possible). I personally just like to play the game. I am not trying to be the best or finish it as quickly as possible. If after an hour you still don't have your first badge, levels increase by a certain number. If you do have your first badge, the levels increase by a larger number, but the time between badges is reset.

I'm gonna try to explain what I mean, because I'm not sure that was clear.

You start the game and you have 1 hr. to get your first badge. Say you get it after 54 mins of playing. Levels of wild pokemon/trainers increase by 50%. Instead of having 6 mins to get your 2nd badge, you have 60 mins. So you would have to have your second badge by the 1hr 54 min mark or levels increase by, say, 25%.

In regards to the poll, and whether the hero should speak or not - I think its pretty clear the majority would prefer a speaking character. Which, to be honest, is what I would have voted for myself.

In regards to posting Overworld screenshots, the reason I have done so yet is because I believe mapping to be one of my weakest areas and I've been putting off posting any screens of it. But I'll go ahead and post some later on today.

In regards to the storyline, I'll write out a more detailed version and stick that in the first post soon.

And in regards to the Trainer Growth...
I was toying with the idea of difficulty settings the player can choose from that affects the speed of other trainer's improvement. This could be changed at any time from the options menu - so if you find the game becoming too easy or difficult, then you can change it on the fly (though the affect may not be instantaneous and gradually become easier/harder. Does that sound plausible?

And finally, in regards to the game being completed...
While I could never hope to 100% guarantee that I will finish this game - and while I also accept that the chances are slim - I will definately try my best. And if for whatever reason I can't, then I will at the very least not stop until there's a decent chunk of the game that can be released.

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